Watershed survey and planning
Though the most of drainage area (or watershed) monitoring and management programs are focused on practical aspects such as water supply, water quality, irrigation, and flood control, many of them are comprehensive and integrative projects. Many countries have implemented integrated approaches known as watershed planning (USA), integral river basin manage (many of EU member states), or river basin management plans (UK).
In 2008 The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published “The Handbook for Developing Watershed Plans to Restore and Protect Our Waters” which became very popular. In this book EPA defined some critical tasks and strategies of watershed planning:
- to collect necessary hydrological, topographical, land use and population data
- to collect and analyze new water quality and flow data
- to identify pollutant sources
- to estimate pollutant loads using watershed modeling methods
- to determine load reductions to meet environmental targets.
The Water Framework Directive (adopted by the majority of EU member states) set even broader goals to protect and restore aquatic ecosystems and strength the water planning process. At forestlands, the emphasis is placed on logging and log transportation effects on the surface runoff. In USA and EU the watershed planners and river managers are concerned with pollution and water quality. In Asia the key target of watershed planning is water supply, both for domestic use and irrigation. There are also many local projects, aimed at sustainable irrigation, flood protection, reservoir management etc.
As is obvious, most of watershed planning problems are geographic in their nature. Some basin characteristics such as climate and topography, are relatively constant, and need to be mapped just once. But hydrological parameters, precipitation, erosion, and often water pollution are very dynamic and must be measured on a long-time basis. Zesmill is instrumental in collection, analysis and integration of multi-source geospatial data.
Zesmill offers innovative solutions for river basin management needs, including:
- aerial and satellite imaging, digital orthophotography
- topographic mapping and 3D modeling
- thematic mapping
- hydrographic surveys (measurements of depth and bottom configuration of water bodies — rivers, reservoirs, lakes, channels)
- streamflow measurements and records
- watershed (drainage area) 2D hydrological modeling on the basis of detailed field observations; modelling runoff hydrographs at single or multiple locations
- river erosion and sedimentation research
- reservoir and lake bank erosion analysis
- river valley geomorphological (landform) mapping
- mapping of erosion prone areas and erosion landforms
- surface water sampling for laboratory analysis
- assessment of river, lake, reservoir health
Zesmill has been involved in several watershed mapping and management projects, including the Upper Rhine valley; the Danube delta; Vuoksi, Urpalanjoki, and Luga (Rivers flowing to the Gulf of Finland and Saima Lake); debris-flow prone river valleys in The Alps and Caucasus.